firehose

Home arcade cabinet maker Dream Arcades is addressing the primary shortcoming of most home arcades: the lack of integration with beer kegs. With the company's latest product, the Dreamcade Kegerator Pro 60, no longer will home arcade enthusiasts suffer the excruciating walk to the nearest refrigerator for a cold brew.

In addition to featuring a 60 inch HD screen and more than 140 pre-loaded classic arcade games, the Kegerator Pro 60 comes equipped with a built-in fridge and three taps, making a refill on the frosty beverage of your choice within easy reach. The cabinet also features a pair of drink holders on each side of the cabinet, should players need a spot to store their pint glass.

The level of thirst-quenching and classic gaming convenience doesn't come cheap, however. The asking price for the Kegerator Pro 60 is $4,999. Dream Arcades also offers a less expensive option with a 29 inch screen, if price is a factor.

Dream Arcades' MAME-based cabinets come pre-loaded with classic arcade games like Pac-Man, Street Fighter 2, Galaga, Centipede, Dragon's Lair and many more.

Established filmmakers have been embracing Kickstarter with open arms this year, and now writer-director John Herzfeld is trying crowdfunding with a slight wrinkle on the formula: he's looking for $250,000 to finish a movie he's largely already shot. Reach Me is a film about 12 characters that are affected in various ways by an inspirational book written by a reclusive football coach. Actors like Sylvester Stallone,  Danny Aiello, Ryan Kwanten (True Blood), and Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead) litter the cast, but according to the Kickstarter campaign one of the film's main investors dropped out during principal photography. Herzfeld and producer Rebekah Chaney put their own money into the movie to keep things going, but the production still requires additional funds to finish post-production and shoot an additional scene with actor Thomas Jane (The Mist).

Unlike most film-related Kickstarter campaigns, Reach Me already has some form of distribution in place, with Herzfeld stating that he needs to deliver the finished film no later than mid-November. It's not clear just what will happen to the film if the goal isn't met, but for those inclined to back the project there are a variety of options, ranging from a single dollar all the way up to $10,000. Depending on what level people participate in, they can receive everything from a PDF of the movie script, to tickets to an advanced screening, all the way up to having a song they've written included in the movie.

Spike Lee recently raised $1.25 million on Kickstarter to fund his newest project, but the funding came at a much slower pace than recent success stories like the Veronica Mars movie and Zach Braff's campaign for Wish I Was Here. Herzfeld is certainly asking for a much smaller sum than any of those projects, with the director of 15 Minutes and 2 Days in the Valley isn't as recognizable as some of those other individuals, either. How the project ends up doing could be a good barometer of whether Kickstarter users are tiring of film projects from established names, or hungry for more.

import workflow
import editor
import ftplib
import console
import StringIO
import keychain
import pickle
import cgi

# Uncomment this line to reset stored password
#keychain.delete_password('macdrifter', 'editorial')
login = keychain.get_password('macdrifter', 'editorial')
if login is not None:
    user, pw = pickle.loads(login)
else:
    user, pw = console.login_alert('FTPS Login Needed', 'No login credentials found.')
    pickle_token = pickle.dumps((user, pw))
    keychain.set_password('macdrifter', 'editorial', pickle_token)

#

remotePath = "/home/my/full/path/"
host = "hostname.com"
port = 22

docTitle = workflow.get_variable('postTitleVar')
fileName = docTitle+'.md'
confirmation = console.alert('Confirm', 'Go ahead and post?','Yes','No')

postContent = editor.get_text()

# Text encoidng sucks!
encode_string = cgi.escape(postContent).encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace')
#postContent.encode('ascii', 'replace')

buffer = StringIO.StringIO(encode_string)
#buffer.write(postContent)
buffer.seek(0)

try:
    ftp = ftplib.FTP(host, user, pw)    
    ftp.cwd(remotePath)
    ftp.storbinary('STOR '+ fileName, buffer)
    ftp.quit()
except Exception, e:
    print e
    console.alert('Error', e)

action_in = workflow.get_input()
console.hud_alert('Posted '+fileName, 'success')

# Extension point to do something after the file is uploaded
action_out = action_in

workflow.set_output(action_out)

The first thing the Upper One team did was look back at how Native Americans have been depicted in the past in games. It was not a particularly edifying experience.

Gross racism and misogyny marks the most notorious example, an Atari 2600 game called Custer's Revenge, in which the main character seeks to rape a tied-up native woman.

The "heap big magic bad medicine" school of Red Indian lingo features in jokey platform games, like the comedy witch doctor Mumbo Jumbo in Banjo-Kazooie and his wigwam-dwelling female rival, Humba Wumba, a sexually suggestive minx.

Fighting games have their own Native Americans. As a genre, it is not renowned for depth of character, and so Nightwolf, Thunder Hawk, Chief Thunder and Julia Chang are pretty much as you would expect from the likes of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Killer Instinct and Tekken: two-dimensional constructs designed primarily for action.

The "Indian Nations" are depicted in historical games like Civilization and Age of Empires, but history being written by the winners, they either pursue the same expansionist-acquisitive concerns of their real-world conquerors, or they perform as bulwarks and rebels.

Native American imagery is often appropriated for sci-fi tribes, such as the buffalo-like Tauren, first seen in Warcraft 3, fighting off an invasion of rapacious Orcs from the east.

Cowboy games throw Native Americans into the general Badlands milieu, and so they, along with rustlers, bandits and other Wild West ciphers, usually turn up as target practice.

The "half-breed hero" trope is oft-used, in Gun, Assassin's Creed 3 and Red Dead Redemption, for example — though in the latter game, Native Americans appeared as interesting characters in their own right, with specific personalities and concerns. Assassin's Creed 3 also took the time to portray native women as powerful individuals, while also dabbling in Earth Mother mysticism.

In 2006, the Association for American Indian Development (AAID) called for a boycott of Activision's Gun, arguing that it glorified genocide. The company's apologists retorted that the main character was half-Apache.

Vesce, Gershenfeld and the team looked back at these portrayals, classified them in ways that might help them understand what they wanted to do that was different.

"We don't really want to be judges of how others have done this before," says Vesce. "We just want to really delve deep into the culture and make the themes and the things that were presented have an indelible mark on the game itself. Not just borrowing a few elements for convenience. That's why we've done so much research and community outreach."

In Upper One's view, games dealing with indigenous people always do one of four things.

• Appropriate — make use of stereotypes for exaggerated effect.
• Sample — include earnest individual elements lacking context.
• Depict — present historic documentary-style representations.
• Infuse — permeate the experience thematically and creatively.

Generally, games fall into the first two categories. The last category is the one least likely to figure in games, although there have been books, TV shows and movies that have sought truth.

"We kept seeing numerous successes created in other media for cultural creatives," says Gershenfeld. "Folks that really want to dive into meaty themes, world themes. Indigenous themes are definitely high up on that list.

"We realized there was very little in the game space, but a lot of these consumers of world music and these kinds of films really do cross over with the gamer generation, especially the independent gamer generation."

The Inupiat advisers on the game also had useful perspectives on how they have been portrayed. "They're very aware of the stereotypes that have portrayed them," says Vesce. "We talked about the misconceptions that they see. But I'd say they desire a means of getting out information about the real beauty and the gifts that their culture has."

Writers Brendan Keogh and Daniel Golding launched Press Select today, an independent digital publishing company that focuses on long-form game criticism and supporting the writers involved in the field.

The publishing company, which was funded after both Keogh and Golding won first placed in Express Media's Young Writers Innovation Prize for their Press Select concept, is currently working with a diverse group of writers from around the world to produce digital books of game criticism. The first of the books are set to be published in early 2014. Some of the writers that will be published by Press Select in its first round have written for publications like Edge magazine, Kotaku, Killscreen and personal blogs, and include writers like Chris Dahlen, Michael Abbott, Jenn Frank, Jason Killingsworth, Maddy Myers, Tim Rogers, Patricia Hernandez and Robert Yang.

Golding told Polygon that Press Select approached authors based on their experience with their previous work, and offered them the opportunity to write about their favorite projects and games.

"Supporting writers in a meaningful sense was pretty much at the top of our list."

"What we've been aiming to do is to pair great writers with their favorite games — the game they have always wanted to write about, that they have maybe written about in a blog post or article here and there," Golding said. "We really want to flesh that out."

Each writer is given the time they need to write an in-depth piece of criticism, which can stretch into the tens of thousands in terms of word count. The writing then goes through a thorough editing process, the writers and editors work with designers and artists to supply art for the book, and it is then laid out as a professional ebook that is sold online. While authors do not receive any payment in advance, they do receive 50 percent of profits, with the percentage increasing in relation to sales.

"Supporting writers in a meaningful sense was pretty much at the top of our list," Golding said. "If an author was getting a contract with a regular print publisher, they would be getting something on the underside of 10 percent of royalties. So one of our number one priorities is to ensure that our authors are supported and get meaningful monetary reward from sales."

Press Select will encourage its writers to have a voice in their writing and to not be afraid to write about their personal experiences with games. Golding emphasized that Press Select is not an academic journal publisher. The books it plans to release will be accessible to readers, and the fact that it's not an academic journal means both the publisher and its writers can be nimble and respond quickly to new games.

Writer Michael Abbott is one of the authors who is working on a piece about The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for Press Select. Best known for running the games criticism blog The Brainy Gamer, he told Polygon that the launch of Press Select offers opportunities for both writers and gamers.

"For writers [to be paid for game criticism], I think it's pivotal," Abbott said. "There's just so much writing about games it's hard to keep track of it all, and a lot of it is good — you can find solid, thoughtful writing about games — but I think we've kind of standardized on an 800-word or so essay that characterizes solid, interesting writing about games.

"Only a few outlets are going to pay for it, and the more specialized it becomes ... it's hard to find a market of any that would pay you to do that. So I think this opens up possibilities for those of us who have been writing in that space, but who might feel like we'd like to try something different, a little more ambitious. This is very encouraging."

According to Abbott, the existence of long-form criticism also gives game players the opportunity to delve even deeper into the game worlds they've played in. Many of the discussions and debates surrounding games have taken place mostly through blogs and online forums. Press Select aims to offer readers polished work that has been given the care it needs.

"I'm very excited about it — for one thing, those two guys know what they're doing," Abbott said of Keogh and Golding. "They're very careful. They've done a lot of research. They aren't just jumping in blind. If anything, they've bent over backwards to do diligent, careful research on how to make a press work."

"I think there's a real passion for thinking about games, and hopefully the idea is we can provide another format or a deeper format for that."

Golding told Polygon that the idea for Press Select came from the success of an ebook that Keogh released last year called Killing Is Harmless. Having played the military shooter Spec Ops: The Line, Keogh wrote more than 50,000 words about the game. His writing ranged from analysis of the game and its mechanics, personal reflections of his experience and criticism of its story and themes. The piece was published as an ebook and sold for $4.99. To date, it has sold more than 6,000 copies.

According to Golding, Press Select doesn't plan to replicate the success of Killing Is Harmless for every book it publishes. In fact, if an issue sells more than a few hundred copies, then it will technically be a financial success for the publisher. But he believes that the success of Killing Is Harmless, as well as the Kickstarter success of fellow publisher Boss Fight Books, indicates that there is an interest for this kind of writing, and that people are willing to pay for it.

"I think the success of both those things illustrates that people are really interested in writing about games and reading about games," he said. "I think there's a real passion for thinking about games, and hopefully the idea is we can provide another format or a deeper format for that.

"It's about taking this reflective, critical dialog that people have been having online over the past four years, polishing it and going as deep as possible. I can't imagine in any way that longer, deeper, better-written, more polished writing about games could not augment games culture and game development."

When writing a suitable story for Garrett, Thief narrative director Stephen Gallagher decided that the best way to build up a narrative was to break down the master thief.

"The [original] character presented himself as fairly unattainable," Gallagher told Polygon. "The walls were up, the doors were closed, the lights were off. So when we were trying to think of how to get inside his personal space and give him conflict, it wasn't [going to be] a driving need.

"We weren't thinking, 'Oh, what's the biggest job he could do?" he said. "The thing is, we need a little bit more than that to try and connect with this guy because, you know, we're trying to be imperfect with this guy who doesn't want to be seen and hides in darkness. If you bumped into him in a dark alleyway, you're not going to think he's there to help you out.

"[He] kind of inspired himself as basic premise: We took his personality and [figured out] what he can't handle."

Gallagher shared more details of the "new Garrett's story," offering a deep look into the world of Eidos Montreal's Thief. The game will star a Garrett haunted by loss and determined to never kill anyone unless it was necessary. Gallagher said Garrett's story begins with Erin, a young woman who has fled the servitude of a brothel and taken to the streets. Garrett, seeing her skill in pickpocketing, takes her under his wing and is determined to make her a master thief. But Erin is quick to kill and actually seems to enjoy the act, so after several years of pilfering partnership the two part ways.

"He kind of inspired himself as basic premise."

Many years later, a man in need of a quick burglary job hires both Garrett and Erin to accomplish it — without telling Garrett that Erin is involved. He is guarded about proceeding with the burglary, Gallagher said, and his misgivings are soon proven true. Erin kills one too many guards as the night wears on and the two make their way to the center of the mansion they break into. Garrett has stolen and hidden Erin's prized weapon — a grappling hook. The two are standing on the roof when a sudden, violent shift of the building sends them both hurdling down to the cobblestones below, where Erin dies and all goes black for Garrett.

Garrett wakes up in a city crumbled under corruption, greed and an unjust rule. His friends tell him he has been gone for one year. And this is where the Garrett of Eidos' Thief begins.

"In a way [we are] expanding on the essence of what that kind of character archetype is," Gallagher said of writing a "new" Garrett. "I think Garrett is unique. And I think a lot of people connected with the old Garrett. It's a very compelling thing to try and get you to empathize with this guy."

Gallagher is telling the story of a man whose profession is taking and a life built on loss. The emphasis on the loss in Garrett's story is how the writer has chosen to break down the seemingly infallible master thief and round out his character.

"To try and define Garrett as the master thief, it doesn't do him a disservice, but it gives you very little to hold on to."

"To try and define Garrett as the master thief, it doesn't do him a disservice, but it gives you very little to hold on to," Gallagher said. "Garrett's been challenging himself as a master thief for many years; the bigger the job, the harder the challenge. I think the biggest challenge for him is by taking [Erin's hook] that day, it's put him in a very strange position. It's put him onto a track he's never been used to before, it's new territory for him. Loss is an interesting emotional hook for players to follow."

Gallagher noted that Garrett's appearance may not be as swarthy or overtly sexy as that of upcoming video game heroes — like Edward Kenway or Batman — but that's because he was never meant to be that kind of guy. He's still a powerful character, but in more quiet, nuanced ways.

"We definitely stepped back from that," he said. "Garrett's stance is actually based on ballet, because it's the quickest, most strongest way to move."

"I wouldn't be expecting someone like him to carry that kind of story."

Gallagher demonstrated how Garrett stands in most of his promotional art, and viewers can see glimpses of his fluid, graceful movements in the handful of available trailers: the thief stands with one foot out, crossed at the top of his other foot and taking up a small amount of standing space.

"I've said this before and sometimes people misunderstand me," Gallagher said, "but there's a certain amount of the feminine in Garrett, he represents a lot of both [male and female.] The strength and elegance of the feminine, as opposed to the chest out, legs apart, 'I will save the world' [attitude]. He's not a savior by his own definition.

"He's lean of body for speech, for efficiency; it wouldn't do well to make him this big muscular guy," he added. "And to get inside his head, it's a privilege for the player, because you are the only person that gets to sit inside his head and hear what he has to say."

More of Garrett's story will be unraveled in the coming months, Gallagher said. But the story above is part of what forms him into the thief players will control in Eidos Montreal's latest adventure.

"You don't often get to play games where you're the master thief sweeping through the city like this," Gallagher said. "I wouldn't be expecting someone like him to carry that kind of story."